How You Can Turn a Lead Into a Job – In 8 Ways!

If you are like most job hunters, chances are good that with even a small amount of looking you will end up with leads on a job. To most people that’s not much, but with the right frame of mind it is, in fact, an entree to a real, honest-to-God job. Take the eight steps this article advises and those leads will turn into jobs, guaranteed.

1. Adjust your compass. A job lead isn’t a precise instrument like a watch, it’s more like a compass to give you a general idea of a job’s location. When you get a job lead it’s hard to tell sometimes how qualified it is. Regardless, you should consider each lead you get to be THE ONE that leads you to the employment you seek. Take it seriously.

2. Time to qualify. Regardless of where you get your lead, you should first qualify the lead. The best way, of course, is to contact the company that is in search of the position you want. If the job is available, try to learn about how to get more information about the position they want to fill.

3. Evaluate. The next step is to take a careful look at yourself and your qualifications to determine if you really are a good fit for the job being offered. If not, don’t waste your time and keep looking.

4. Fill in the dots. If your honest answer to the question above is yes, prepare your resume to exactly fit the qualifications of the job you are applying for. Forget one-size-fits-all resumes. They don’t work.

5. Follow up. If you can determine who the hiring manager of the position is, check with them to ensure that the position you are applying for is still available. Use this contact to talk yourself up for the position. Your goal at this point should be to leave the hiring manager anticipating the receipt of your resume.

6. The interview. Hopefully with the steps you have followed above, you have successfully gotten an interview. Your resume’s purpose until this point is to get you in the door. Now is the time to sell yourself and your qualifications.

7. Thank you and follow up again. The very next thing you should do after you leave an interview is to drop a thank you note to the hiring manager for the opportunity to interview for the job. This is also another opportunity you have to sell yourself and your qualifications for the job to the person whose job is to fill the position. If you have done everything up to this point correctly, you have painted yourself as the logical answer to the job the employer is wishing to fill.

8. Closing the sale. Unfortunately, at this point almost all job seekers believe that the fight is over now. Whatever happens is beyond their reach. This isn’t true, especially if you were one of the first candidates interviewed for the job. If you were, your job at this point is to keep your name and qualifications in front of the hiring manager until a determination of your qualifications is made.